(Untitled)

[headline_maker]

It was madness, utter madness, all across the island. Somewhere beneath the usual flurry of questions running through Sacharissa's mind was a keen sense of relief. She had escaped this time, thank gods. From the shouts and shrieks coming from all around, she seemed to be one of the lucky few who could make that claim

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[wpc_ridinghood]

Ginger was dead. Annie had been on edge ever since she found out, and even after all of a day, it was still more than obvious to look at her how unsettled she was. She'd always had a habit of getting attached to people when she shouldn't, and maybe the girl had been her patient, but Annie'd cared about her all the same.

Coming across Sacharissa was about as close to a relief as she expected to get, and she managed a faint, slightly forced smile. "Sacharissa," she greeted, with a short nod. "If that is you, of course."

[headline_maker]

"This time it is, mercifully," Sacharissa said. The sight of Annie put a bit of a damper on her cheer, though she couldn't think of it as Annie's fault. It had been nice to forget about the investigation and the death for a few moments, but now an idea had entered her head. With all these bodies switched around and the killer at large, it had suddenly become that much harder to know who was where doing what. She pressed the sobering thought to the back of her mind, keeping a mental note to speak to William later, though she wasn't sure yet what to do with it. "I wasn't so lucky last time. It's nice to be out of the fray this go round. It is Annie still, isn't it?"

[wpc_ridinghood]

"Fortunately, yes," Annie replied, not even bothering to try and suppress a sigh of relief. Knowing that Sacharissa wasn't caught up in all the madness that was going on was a comfort she'd needed. "I couldn't tell you what I'd do if I'd woken up as someone else, if only because I'd be running around worried about who was in my body." And with a killer on the loose, no less, but she kept that comment to herself. Everyone knew what had happened by now, she was sure of it, and she didn't need to darken the mood by mentioning something she didn't need to.

[headline_maker]

"And what they'd do with it," Sacharissa said, shaking her head. Most people in these parts seemed nice enough, but then, most people did when they were out in the world. It was what they did when no one was looking that concerned her. "Of course, I just sat in all day once I figured out what was going on."

[never_atone]

Briony's wandering mind never alighted on any one thought for very long. On occasion something great and powerful might strike her, engaging her whole mind and body, occupying that great cerebral muscle for hours at a time, but on the whole, now, in these days, Briony attempted to keep her interests and ideas mundane.

But on the subject of Sacharissa Cripslock, much more time had been spent than Briony felt right. Rupert's words had never fully left her. My brother's fiance. No mention of Maladicta at all. Briony could not understand it, and she struggled tirelessly against her own sense of reason in an effort to prove Sacharissa's goodness and innocence. But no matter how Briony observed the facts as they were, she could not make a fitting story of them, nothing that would evince her friend's morality and kindness

[headline_maker]

Sacharissa returned the stare, herself confused by Briony's expression. "Briony," she said after a few moments, "are you quite all right?" She thought a moment, then added, "For that matter, are you you?"

Maladicta and William, at least, were still themselves, but figuring out everyone else on the island was difficult at best. She didn't really think it like Briony to stand and stare, but it wasn't exactly an ordinary day, and she looked patiently back.

[never_atone]

The simple answers came first. "Yes," she said, her words accompanied by a series of small nods. "Yes, I am myself."

What she really wished to say, all the questions that filled her mind to bursting, was too difficult to say just there. It wasn't a proper setting. "I.. I'm sorry, I.. I hardly know what to say to you." Briony's sin, Briony's betrayal would always be greater by far to the crimes against the heart and soul that any other might commit. But looking at Sacharissa's face just then, a vision of concern and kindness and sweetness, Briony felt doubly betrayed.

[headline_maker]

"To me?" Sacharissa echoed, more confused now than before. Something was wrong here. What, however, seemed to have nothing to do with the ongoing chaos, and if it wasn't that, she couldn't begin to guess what it might be. Aside from this bodyswitching business, everything had been perfectly normal lately. "Is something the matter, Briony?" Though she racked her mind for something, there was no answer to be found.

[most_ardent]

It was entirely possible that she, like himself and so many others, had found herself in the body of another and that the woman Remus came upon in the rec room was not, in fact, Sacharissa Cripslock. To be sure, there was one way to find out.

"It seems the island has provided you with a somewhat newsworthy event, Sacharissa," he said in greeting, still not entirely used to speaking with Darcy's voice.

[headline_maker]

"Although a similar story's been through the cycle before," Sacharissa agreed with a small, wry smile. "There are still people who'll never have read it. Are you yourself today then, Mr Darcy?" Although she and Fitzwilliam Darcy were not precisely close, she was quite fond of his wife and sister-in-law, and had never yet had cause to dislike the man.

[most_ardent]

Remus shook his head. "It's Remus, actually," he answered as he clasped his hands behind his back, a gesture he seemed to be making with some regularity now that he was in Darcy's body. "I myself had been spared from this particular island oddity until now."

[headline_maker]

"Oh," Sacharissa said, and then, again, "oh!" She smiled more broadly, but didn't laugh. Funny as it was, she knew that her amusement mostly came from relief. She'd been through it before after all. "Oh, that is strange. Are you doing alright, Remus? It takes some getting used to."